Gotham Gal

Ricks Picks, Eat Drink Local Week

Rick told me that the gang at Ricks Picks was going to be posting each day starting before 4th of July weekend with 7 different recipes using one of the pickles with one of the 7 ingredients:  strawberries, peas, chives and green garlic, rhubarb, lamb, oysters and yogurt.  This is a celebration of the Edible community. 

I wanted in so here is what I created, using lamb as one of the ingredients.

Grilled and sliced leg of lamb

Thin slices of goat gouda that will easily melt over sliced hot lamb

Mixture of Dijon mustard mixed with a few drops of Worchestshire sauce

A piece of Napa cabbage

Chopped handful of Hotties

Chopped handful of grape tomatoes

Soft bun

Cut the bun in half, scoop out the top half of the buns inside bread (makes for a better layered sandwich), slather the bottom half with mustard mixture, put in slices of lamb, top with gouda, top with chopped pickles, topped with chopped tomatoes and layer over a slice of Napa cabbage, put on the top...Voila.   Nice tasty sandwich with a good kick from the pickle.  Perfect lunch.

 

 

When did we start giving awards for everything?

I talked to a friend the other day who had just come back from Kindergarten graduation.  She asked the question that I have asked myself, when did we start giving awards for everything? I'd love to know how we got to this place. 

Kids are acknowledged at each turn for their achievements regardless of not achieving anything that major.  I've seen it and heard about it from friends over the years.  My kid graduates lower school today and there is an event.  Each kid gets some type of an award for their achievements.  How come?  What happened to acknowledging the one or two kids that truly did something exceptional.  Is it for the parents or the kids?  If each kids knows that they will get some type of an award at the end of the year then when do we teach it is ok to be just you.  If you get a reward at every turn, how do we learn to fail?  How do we learn from our mistakes. 

Sports awards ceremonies not only acknowledge the MVP of the High School basketball team but attempt to make sure each kid gets something.  Why?  We all know who the MVP was and that is ok.  Are we setting up our kids to get patted on the back for everything they do.  When these kids go on to college and eventually the real world, are they going to be expected to be patted on the back every time they do the job right.  Isn't that a given that we should do the job that we were expected to do even if that job is reading a book for an assignment and writing a paper on it. How will these kids be able to feel good about their own personal accomplishments without outside acknowledgement.

Aren't we expected to go to school, do well, graduate from High School and hopefully go on to college or perhaps a different path but the path that each person figures out for themselves.  If everything these kids do is acknowledged with an award and a good job then what type of adults will these kids be? 

How can we go back to acknowledging kids for a job well done without an award and giving them room to fail.  At one point, this constant round of applause will stop and then what. 

I had the pleasure of speaking with a group of young adults who are at Yale or have graduated this week who all have the desire to be entrepreneurs at some level.  I say at some level because many of them want to work in start-ups from the onset and hope that one day they will come up with their own idea for a company. 

We discussed a variety of different topics but at the end, the young woman who ran this program, asked me what my advice would be to them as they graduate college and go out in to the world.  My advice was be nice to everyone you meet regardless if they seem like they are an asshole because you never know, if you have a desire to be in a particular vertical/industry then keep knocking on that door until you get in because you don't want to find yourself five years down the road in an industry that doesn't excite you and most important.....it is okay to fail.  Failing is part of the learning process of life, failing is okay, failing means you put yourself our there, failing means you took a risk, failing means you have learned a valuable lesson. 

After I finished, there was a noticable sigh and smile among the group.  She said, that is so good to hear, it makes me feel much better. 

 

The Dutch

The Dutch is one of the hottest restaurants in NYC right now.  Getting a reservation is not easy.  I tried and failed several times.  But I went with someone this week who is able to score a seat any time and anywhere.  Thank god for friends. 

Supposedly the menu has changed since it opened and will probably continue to change over time.  There are three rooms.  I really like what they have done with the space.  Masculine in feel yet very much like a big local bar.  The only thing that is tough is the noise levels are super high.  We sat in the back room, in one of the comfortable banquettes and until the room cleared out I had trouble hearing.  Kind of a drag. 

I started off with a cocktail as they were really being talked about.  Barrel-Aged Brooklyn Cocktail.  Rye, Vermouth, American Picon, Oak and a huge Luxrado Maraschino cherry on the bottom of the glass.  It was quite delicious although every time I sip a cocktail, I can close my eyes and go back to High School when we would order cocktails at restaurants that would serve us.  The taste just brings me back.

Each table gets a small corn bread.  A nice spicy kick and moist.  The menu has a Southern twist to it with a modern flair. 

Our first appetizer was a crab dish.  Bloody Mary mixture, per se, on the bottom of the dish with pieces of crab layered across the plate and green goddess dressing hidden through out.  Very clever. 

These little softshell crab sandwiches are fantastic.  Crispy crab in a small bun with a nice sauce and some lettuce.  The perfect summer dish.

Just on the name of this dish alone was worth tasting.  Asian White Boy Ribs.  Falling off the bone, coated with sesame seeds and an Asian spice an hints of cilantro.  Very sticky but of course they came by with a bowl of wet towels after you finish. Nice touch.

For a main I went with the black bass.  Steamed black bass with a few mussels and a lemon grass curry with some peanuts.  Flavorful and well done.  Many of the meat dishes sounded too heavy although the Pecan Duck was intriguing when the heat comes I find it hard to eat heavy food. 

For dessert we had two.  Cherry pie with toasted almond slices.  I am not a huge cherry pie fan.  The filling was good and the crust wasn't flaky enough.

Strawberry shortcake was amazing.  The small bisquits were buttery and moist.  The fruit was sweet and the whipped cream was the perfect compliment.  This we finished.

Glad I went and will absolutely go back.  My guess is that The Dutch will come into its own over time as all good restaurant do.  The place has been jammed from day one and the atmosphere is happening.  To maintain a long run the food has to be good too.  Will try and make my reservation sometime this month for October.  LOL. 

Barbara Pantuso, Hey Neighbor, Woman Entrepreneur

Barbara grew up everywhere maybe that is why she created Hey Neighbor, a platform to share and connect with your local community.  Her father was in the food service business for stadiums and during her youth stadiums were cropping up everywhere.  She literally moved fifteen times before she turned 18.  Going to Cornell for college was the first time in her life that she stayed somewhere for a significant period of time. 

After graduation Barbara moved to Italy to become a pastry chef.  At Cornell she majored in the restaurant management school which is possibly the best in the country.  Leaving Italy for San Francisco to become a chef and eventually run a restaurant.  She considered going to Harvard to get a MBA, actually got accepted and two weeks before school began she decided it wasn't for her.  Her family was not too pleased but she went to Asia where she traveled for six months contemplating what was next for her. 

Upon returning, her friend was starting up an interactive biz and she joined the party.  It was 1998 and the business was called 415.  That was a time when interactive businesses were popping up everywhere.  She rode the wave up and the crash down of that dot com era.  She happened to be grounded in NYC on 9/11 and after that experience decided to move back east. 

Having a passion for growing things she got a job in the Healthcare to build their digitial division.  She  helped bridge the gap for patients to learn about their treatments based on their diganosis.  It was all about design and education.  She left in 2004 to work with Frog Design which is a Global innovative company.  Barbara came up with the idea for Hey Neighbor while she was there.  Frog Design was happy to support her and gave her a leave of absence to start-up her company.  Pretty amazing actually to know that as a young entpreneur she has something to fall back on if need be. 

She came up with the idea of building a platform for neighborly sharing and collaboration.  After posting a listing on Craigs list to sell her couch she realized the need for more localized information.  It took a few days but eventually someone came down to Harlem to the West Village to get her couch.  Her neighbor saw the couch and asked if she was just moving in.  Barbara said she had been there for a while but was selling her couch.  The neighbor was bummed because she said if she knew, she would have bought it.  Hmmm.  An idea was spawned. 

All information at Hey Neighbor is user generated and defined through your zip code.  Collaborative consumption of neighbors helping each other from micro favors such as a need for a ladder or folding table of even a bundt pan.  Bigger ideas such as planting flowers on the block to needing to find a good dog walker.  The biz is centralized with peer to peer favors as well as possible group buying opportunities.  Suburban and urban life becomes more efficient.  Environmental benefits provides cost savings that because it shortens the distance to solve problems which can be as simple as selling a couch. 

I love that Barbara followed her passion for food first and then evolved through the 1.0 Internet generation being involved with three start-ups and eventually putting her roots down in NYC and creating Hey Neighbor.  For someone who has been somewhat of a nomad, Hey Neighbor speaks to her desire to create something that she didn't have growing up.  Here is hoping that Hey Neighbor unlocks neighborhoods everywhere. 

strawberry jam, a new way

My friend Jane got really into jam making as well as anything that goes in a glass jar the last few years.  She suggested I try to make strawberry jam this year without pectin.  In all honesty, pectin makes making jam pretty damn easy.  Pectin also insures that the jam gels.  After some pondering, I went with Jane's suggestion.

Here is the thing with this, not a simple activity.  For every cup of strawberries, I used half a cup of sugar.

To get to the 10 jars that I made, here was my recipe. 

12 cups of strawberries, with the tops sliced off

6 cups of sugar

1 whole lemon for juice.

Put the strawberries and sugar in a large pot.  Larger than you think because when the mixture boils, it rises and the thought of strawberry jam boiling over onto your stove is a nightmare.  Mix together the sugar and strawberries, smash this a bit with a potato masher and let stand for a few hours.  I let mine stand for about two hours. 

After standing put the heat on high and when this mixture finally gets to a rolling boil then let it boil for five minutes, stirring constantly even before it begins to boil.  You don't want the sugar to burn.  Once the five minutes is up, strain the mixture into a large bowl letting the juices separate from the berries.  This can stand for a few minutes to make sure all the juices strain.  Save the berries.

Take the juice and put it back in the pot and bring to a boil again.  Here is the hard part.  My pot was not short enough for a candy thermometer so I had to use hand mitts, hold the candy thermometer in one hand and constantly mix with the other.  You want the candy thermometer to read between 200-220 before taking this off the heat.  It takes awhile. 

Once the heat hits 200/220, take the berries in the strainer and add it back to the juice.  Bring this to a rolling boil again while continuing to stir.  A rolling boil means the mixture is boiling even while you mix. Once is at rolling boil, turn off the heat.

Then using a ladle, fill each jar.  Seal the jars in a water bath.  Voila.  Jane was right, this is really good and it gels.  Might have to make more next weekend and some blueberry jam too!

Harry, RIP

Seventeen years ago my sister was living in Los Angeles. This dog appeared on her back porch.  He was thin and mangly. She had absolutely no idea where he came from.

At first she thought he would go away but on the second day she picked up some dog shampoo on the way home from work and gave him a bath.  She let him hang out on the porch leaving the back door open and soon he started to come in until he felt at home.  She took him to a vet who declared he was about a year old.  She wondered what she should do, he told her that its her dog now and so it was.

She named him Harry. She was moving back to NYC in six weeks and a friend said she'd take him when she left but when the time came, she had already fallen in love.  Harry was hers.

What a life Harry had.  He was treated like a prince.  A happy funny dog who Josh deemed the wonder dog about 11 years ago when we couldn't find him on the beach after dark. We looked everywhere and finally decided to walk home.  When we got home, there was Harry sitting in the driveway waiting for our return.

Harry loved to eat.  He would sit by his bowl when other dogs were around coveting his property.  His favorite food was red licorice. 

Harry got old like we all do. He is 18 which is really old for a dog and the vet said he was the oldest dog in his practice and he has been practing over 40 years.  He was blind and was a bit out of it this past few months.  Yet putting Harry to sleep is not so easy. You want to say good bye before it gets to the point where things get really bad.

Today was the day.  I went with my sister today to say goodbye to Harry.  He had a helluva of a life. 

Harry, RIP

An idea for a fund

Over the last year I have spent more time talking to interesting women about a variety of topics.  What kind of work they do, their companies, their ideas, their families, how to fund more women entrepreneurs, how be more transparent about our lives to help the next generation, etc. 

One of the many topics is how to connect more women angels, like myself.  I certainly have a small handful of people that I show businesses to that come across my desk.  I am curious what they might think and perhaps if we would invest together.  Also, it helps when doing diligence.  Regardless of those conversations, there is a lot of singular focus and there is something to said for group that is focused on the same thing, like a company. 

I have been thinking about what a womans fund would look like for a while.  I have investments in tech based companies but I also have investments in companies that for lack of a better description are brick and mortar models.  Certainly the brick and mortar models use tech but their businesses only use it because it helps them expand and everyone must have a social media/site as part of their business these days. 

Here is my idea.  50% of the capital raised would go to tech related businesses.  Tech related is a broad topic so I define it as a business that uses tech as a platform to create their business and without the technology piece, they wouldn't be in business.  I have already invested in companies like that such as Food52, Red Stamp, Catch-a-Fire, Curbed/Eater/Racked, Nest.io, Editd, Edition01 and  DailyWorth.  Btw, except for Curbed Media, all of these companies were started by women entrepreneurs and most of them have a balance of women and men at the top of the company.  To me, that makes for a much better organization. 

The other 50% would go towards more brick and mortar operations.  Those term sheets are much different.  I would set up a group of advisors around these businesses to help insure their success.  Where in the tech world you generally have multiple investors that can give advice and help the entrepreneurs grow their company, in the brick and mortar not so much.  There are a few models in the non-profit world where money has been given to women to start their own businesses and there is a path that they follow that helps the entrepreneur avoid many pitfalls.  

Those businesses, again started by women entrepreneurs, have a difficult time get funding.  Think of a woman in a community who is interested in a business where she provides all the sweatshirts, t-shirts, sweatpants, etc. to all the local schools in the area.  A bank is not interested in funding someone like that but perhaps we would. 

If we could come up with something where more women are getting funded to create companies that could grow in range from $10M to $100M that are evenly balanced between men and women at the top and provide jobs opportunites for people who have chosen to stay home and want to work hours that work with their life style or want to re-enter the work place, the impact in the economy and communities could be significant. 

Not saying I am doing this but am just thinking outloud. 

Annisa

We went to Annisa on Monday night for dinner.  It was our 24th wedding anniversary.  24 years.  Wow..and Fred and I have been together for 30 years.  Lots has happened over the past 30 years. 

We have been to Annisa a variety of times over the years and then there was a fire.  Annisa closed and reopened and this is the first time we have been back.  One of the things I love about the restaurant is there is something very elegant and modern.  Not a place that is happening but a classic.  Thoughtful preparation to the food and service.  A really wonderful place.  A small gem in the village. 

We split everything.  They brought over a pastry shell filled with chicken livers, currant and chopped scallions to start.  One big bite.  The crunch of the pastry with the smooth texture of the chicken livers and the little currants was a pretty amazing mouth explosion. 

There is only one way to describe this wine, delicious. 

For the first course we started with barbecued squid.  Tiny bodies of squid that had been barbecued and mixed together with thai basil and fresh peanuts sitting over a mixture of green and black beans.  On the right was one panko deep fried large squid.  Beautiful presentation. 

The other dish was split was lightly fried stuffed zucchini blossoms.  They were stuffed with chickpeas and cheese.  The blossom was sitting over a mint chutney.  I am not a huge mint person except on a rare occasion with the right thing.  I didn't love the mint but the blossom was perfect.

For our main course we went with the duck and rabbit.  Long island duck sliced and served over a brown herb sauce and chopped papaya.  On the side was a rich duck soup with small pieces of duck and tiny vegetables.  The other a duck rillette, pulled and shaped into a cylinder with thinly sliced daikon on top.  I liked how they presented the duck three different ways.  The rillette was a nice surprise.

The other main was the rabbit.  Although the fish dishes sounded good but we decided to be a bit adventurous.  Lightly crusted rabbit served with a light sauce and a variety of vegetables including carrots fava beans and turnips.  This was really delicious.  On the side was rabbit wrapped around ramps and a light japanese flavored curry. 

Both the appetizers and the mains were good and certainly a lot of effort went into each one in terms of preparation and concept but honestly the best thing last night was the desserts.  Beignets stuffed with pecan and salted butterscotch that came oozing out when you bit into the beignet.  On the side was a Bourbon milk ice cream.

The other dessert was so incredible that if you had put an entire platter in front of me I might have been compelled to eat the entire thing.  Poppy seed bread and butter pudding with Meyer lemon curd.  Rich, delicious, lemony and just a huge wow. 

After dinner was over we walked over to the Soho Club to see Chiddy Bang.  Such a nice guy and the music speaks for itself.  He even gave a shout out to Fred which was pretty cool.  After a few songs, we walked home.  24 years...and counting. 

Don't Discount What I Do

My friends wife had to return to her family, who lives in Norway, for a month.  She took the kids and left this past week.  Her father died suddenly, although he certainly had a long life, it wasn't expected.  My friend said he was thinking about me and conversations we have had over the years about not discounting what his wife does.  It happen to hit him right between the eyes this past week. 

Every morning, he gets up and leaves the house at the ungodly hour of 430/5am.  He is basically comatose as he grabs a coffee, that has been programmed for his morning cup by his wife every night, on the way to work.  He also grabs the milk from the refrigerator and pours it into his cup and without realizing it probably leaves the milk on the counter daily.  This week, his routine continued even though his family is abroad.  He got up, filled up his coffee mug, topped it off with a little milk and walked out the door.  The difference is when he came back that night, the milk was still on the counter just where he had left it leaving him no milk the following morning because now the milk had gone bad. 

What is the lesson here?  Relationships and marriages are partnerships that ebb and flow over the years.  We all take different roles as kids come into the picture or as jobs change but every persons role is just as important as the next.  Just because you aren't in the process of bringing home the bacon, per se, it doesn't mean that one person's job/role isn't just as important as the other. 

How does the house get clean?  How does the milk get put away?  How does the refrigerator get filled with food?  How does the laundry get done and end up the drawers folded?  How do the kids get dressed and happen to have new shoes and clothes each time they get a growth spurt?  How do we have dinner reservations with friends this week?  How did the kids bday party get planned?  How did that vacation get planned?  How did the car get serviced?  Need I go on? 

Running a family is just like running a small business.  Each day is different, there is a never ending list of to-dos, each decision you make has reprecussions, all days are learning and teaching moments....and each day is absolutely exhausting. 

So at the end of the day, no matter what role you take, don't discount what anyone does. 

Jenna Park, Sweet Fine Day, Freelancer and Woman Entrepreneur

My BFF reads Sweet Fine Day religiously.  She turned me on to the site and thought it would be a good idea to interview Jenna for woman entrepreneur of the week.  Not only have I read Sweet Fine Day where Jenna is totally honest and transparent about herself and her life, I have tasted the delicious products from Jenna and her husband Mark's bakery, Whimsy & Spice.  It took us a while to find a time to connect but we finally did and her story is one that I see many of the next generation taking. 

Jenna grew up in Queens as the first generation of parents who immigrated from Korea.  Her mother was a nurse and in the 70's the US opened up their doors to nurses and Jenna's mom came over.  Once she settled herself in she then brought Jenna, her husband and her own siblings to the US to live.  An impressive story. 

Jenna attended Catholic school in Queens, St. Francis Prep, which at that time didn't even require uniforms and had about 700/800 kids per class.  This school was also a feeder into Cooper Union.  For a college that takes very few kids every year, St. Francis would have at least 3 if not more kids go to Cooper Union after graduating HS.  Jenna was one of them. 

All her life Jenna was an achiever.  Maybe it had to do with her family life which although they lived in Queens, it was probably a bit sheltered as many first generation attempt to keep the values and traditions that came with them to the states.  Her father owned a wig store near Bloomingdales that had some major stars as clients.  Her mother continued in nursing as it allowed her the ability to be home at 3pm for the kids. 

Once Jenna got into Cooper Union she moved to the East Village and everything changed. She got there and lost steam.  She wondered to herself what is the point.  Striving to be the best and then all of a sudden you get there and you look around and say, so what.  If it wasn't for her parents, she probably wouldn't have even survived the three years that she did.  At the end of her junior year she called it quits.  The hardest part was telling her parents.  Her father was surprisingly calm and just asked her to promise that she would finish her education.  Instead of staying in NYC, she traveled around the US for the next eight months eventually landing in Olympia, Washington where she had her transcripts moved to Evergreen State College.  Jenna really knew nothing about the college but it ended up being the perfect fit.  She majored in fine arts at Cooper Union but at Evergreen she studied music.  It was an interesting time to be in Seattle as the whole riot girl era was happening and Nirvana was peaking.  It was there she also met her husband, Mark.

After graduating, they moved to Portland, OR where Jenna did graphics for a local magazine just to make some money.  She missed the diversity of NYC, the beat of the street and her Mom was sick so they packed up and moved to NYC.  It was good to be back.  She was glad that she had made the journey that she did.  Once she got to Cooper Union she felt lost and she realized that she had to find herself by doing it her way. 

In NYC, she fell into the beauty business working for a small family owned business that designed all the perfume strips.  At that point there was only one company doing this.  The family was also in the luxury goods market but it was there that she saw a completely different world.  A world of entrepreneurship different than her father or mother and a world of serious wealth.  The company was sold and after a year and a half she left. 

Instead of getting another job, she went to ITP, a divison of NYU.  She was there from 1998-2000 at a time where the web was really changing.  After graduating she interviewed with a variety of large companies but realized that she couldn't see herself there.  Instead of she forged out on her own as a freelancer.  She met a woman who started a company called Cabengo  It is here where she has done a variety of interesting work, mostly artistic web work, for companies that interest her.  Another friend started PopGadget and she found herself working with them too and then launched BabyGadget.  Jenna worked on this for a year.  It was 2004 and she had her first kid.  Although everything changed because she had a kid in many ways it didn't. 

Her husband Mark is a pastry chef and was working at a place where he had insurance and was making pretty good money.  He had two days off during the week so between the two of them they tag teamed because Jenna was working four days a week.  Mark decided to move on in his job and then ended up being laid off, the economy had just soured.  It was then that they decided to open Sweet Fine Day.  Timing is everything.  They had talked about it for years and this opportunity presented itself.  It was 2008.

They were living in Brooklyn and spoke to Eric from Brooklyn Flea who came to their house to see if they would be interested in having a table at the Flea.  Jenna knew the importance of having a web presence from blogging and branding and she grew that part of the business while Mark baked.  They opened up with the flea and their business was born.  It became profitable out of the gate.  The success of the Brooklyn Flea venue has allowed many people to have their own businesses that they love such as Jenna and Mark.

Jenna has continued to do freelance work even as they business has grown.  They rent out commercial space in Sunset Park which is where their products are made.  The kids are a little bit older and in school all day so that has changed their lives too.  Yet they still tag team and have thought about where they want to take the business. 

Jenna's Mom quit being a nurse after the kids left the house and got into real estate where she seriously excelled.  That is Jenna's role model.  What is interesting about Jenna's story is that she isn't exactly an entrepreneur but she is.  She has created a work/life situation that is suited to her and her family.  She works on great projects, she keeps up their blog, she helps her husband in the family business as they figure out what the next steps of growth are and she has figured out how to create flexibility in her life.  Jenna wrote a great post about spontaneity and flexibility after we spoke.  I probably got her thinking.  Although it isn't always easy, each step of the way is different as their kids get older.  Although Jenna is not 20, I believe her story is ahead of the curve.  More and more people will find themselves where Jenna did even how she felt at Cooper.  She took control of her own life and created one that works for her and her family. 

It was great sitting down with her.  Jenna is thoughtful, super smart and there is a calm intensity about her that I found intriguing.  Thanks to Helene for pushing me to contact Jenna.  Nice one.